Wildomar parks panel set

Wildomar now has a committee to oversee park tax spending as a result of City Council action last week.

In a move mandated by November's passage of a $28 per parcel annual levy to fund parks, the council voted unanimously to create a five-member panel charged with ensuring the money will be spent as the measure requires.

The council then picked five residents to serve on the volunteer committee: park tax campaign leader John Lloyd, landscape architect and park planner Scott Bradstreet, early childhood educator Dawn DeVolder, parks advocate Kristen West and civil engineer Monty Goddard.

Each of them has been active in park issues in some way -- either in their careers or in Wildomar's struggle over parks because of financial constraints. Goddard's role has been unique in that his primary concerns, as expressed at council meetings, have been safety at parks and their negative effects on neighbors. He also has a background in accounting with the Department of Defense.

"I think we need somebody on that committee who's willing to speak his mind," said Councilwoman Marsha Swanson in nominating Goddard.

Lloyd, who manages corporate facilities and is a former water district director, said formation of the committee was another crucial step toward reopening two of the city's three parks that were closed and rehabilitating the largest park, which has deteriorated.

"Initially, it means trying to push through and get the parks open as soon as we can and as cost effectively as possible," he said.

He said each member of the committee, which will meet quarterly at a minimum, appears to be uniquely equipped to handle the task of monitoring the more than $300,000 raised by the tax annually.

"Several of them have been very helpful in the community for many years, so I think it's going to be great," he said. "All of them seem to have a good accounting background to one degree or another, so they'll definitely understand what we're up against."

Although Wildomar has only 15 acres of park space, which is far less than the park space in neighboring cities, financing the sites and keeping them open has been problematic over the years.

Around the year 2000, they were shut down when the recreation district that raised money for them and ran them went out of business.

Before Wildomar became a city in 2008, property owners voted in 2006 to pass a $28 per parcel tax enabling the county to reopen the parks. A lawsuit, however, successfully challenged the tax as vioating the state's constitution. That revenue halted in 2010, leading to the city's quandary over how to afford the parks.

In November, a measure to restore the tax received a 69 percent approval rate, more than the two-thirds majority needed for passage. Revenue from the tax won't start rolling into the city's coffers until 2014, but city officials hope to start taking measures to refurbish and reopen the parks now that the committee is on board.

Lloyd said he expects city administrators will present the committee with an action plan when it holds its first meeting sometime in March.

"They are discussing the possibility of using funds out front that would be reimbursed from the eventual tax once it comes in," he said. "We need to make sure that those funds also will be spent correctly, but until they give us a plan of action, we won't know how things are actually going to go."